My First State Competition
by TrinaSheepChan
Summary: What happens when on your first state competition it poors down freezing cold rain in the middle of the show and your area is under tornado warning? One night you won't forget easily.


What happens when on your first state competition it poors down freezing cold rain in the middle of the show and your area is under tornado warning? One night you won't forget easily.  
  
First I guess I have to tell a little bit about my band. Well our halftime show consisted of different Disney songs. Tuesday was the first day we put the second half of show together. Friday was the first time we performed it and Saturday was the competition. Now on Friday we were all hyped because we finally got to do our whole show. The other team, of course, went on first. They played Gladiator and compared to the Mickey Mouse Song, they did a whole lot better job than we did. They put the Little Mermaid to shame.  
  
Well then, so Saturday creeps around. And we've been in a tornado warning all day with a 90% chance of rain. We go to our practice right before we have to get ready. It is windy as anything. Well after practice we go the band hall and Mr. Joe tells us the competition is still on. Now since we our second largest band on the coast we were to play second to last (somehow that didn't happen). So we load the cheese wagons.  
  
On our way there we here the horror stories from my section leader who is in cross-country. She tells us that when she was running she was forced into a ditch by a parent due to tornadoes in the area. The drum major said he was listening to the Gulfport (where we were playing) weather radio station and said the only thing you could here was that tornado siren going off.   
  
Well anyway we arrive at Gulfport High Stadium. Bands are loading up. Moss Point band was loading up and yelling at us to do well. (They got ones.) Another band was telling us, "You get a big trophy if you get three's!" (You just wanted to pound them.) So anyhoo we get off our busses and into sections, and right when we get off we have to play. We line up in our single file line (without the low brass percussion, or guard) and march into the stadium, which was muddy as anything.   
  
I go to my spot (two off the fifty) and our band director tells us to buzz on our mouthpieces till he says so. I sit there and as I watch the pit set up and the low brass run into place. I watch the guard run across the field. At this time we were told we were the last band to perform. Finally time to begin.  
  
Everything is going find in the first 56 counts (when we just march out into our spots), but two clarinets weren't counting and pivoted too early. They make the announcements and time to begin! Light sprinkle of rain is falling at this time. (May I add we were wearing coats and jackets.) We start to play the Mickey Mouse theme song, and everything went fine! We go into the Little Mermaid: Part of Your World. Everything going fine and the light rain has stopped. We go into Tarzan: Trashing the Camp our percussion feature. It starts to rain lightly again. It starts to rain heavier. Now during this song our percussion takes off their drums and run over to some trashcans and plays on them. Now when one percussionist took of his drum and ran over to the trashcans, he slipped and ran right into the trashcans.   
  
End of the percussion feature and into our dance feature Jungle Book: Wanna Be Like You. It's still raining, but not heavy. First part of the song is good. The chorus was good and so we went go into the trumpet and saxophone solo. When our saxophone soloist was running down to spot on the fifty to do the solo we slipped and glided several feet. After wards he smiled and waved then got back on his feet.   
  
End of the dance feature and into the finale Hook: Lullaby and the Peter Pan Overture. It starts to rain harder. Now we are facing backfield for the first uh . . . 24 + 20 something. We pivot around to face front field and nothing but freezing cold rain is blowing in your face. (And I wear glasses.) We move down and over and go into four-four. I'm swaying due to the wind is blowing extremely hard. We go into the last few measures and horns down.   
  
We start to exit the field. Mr. Joe was yelling at the woodwinds to get their instruments under the coats. It's poring down rain. We exit the stadium and just stand there as we watch the low brass and percussion load up. We all go under the stadium till our drum major yells at us to go to the busses. On the busses we all get out of our soaking wet uniforms. Then we are informed that the clarinet buss was broken and that clarinets would have to get scattered out between the other six busses. We get three clarinets  
  
So anyhoo we're off to go back home. We are so glad! Our drum major tells us that like five people slipped during the whole performances. One of the clarinets told us that another clarinet lost her shoe during the first half of show. So anyway we just happen to decide to take a detour through a neighboring town. And one of the clarinets is yelling Are we lost? Finally we get back to our town and go to school. Once there our band director tells us to go into the hallways due to the fact that there is some tornadoes ten miles away from us. We were in the hallway only for a few minutes. Once back in the band hall we were informed that we made all superiors. (YEAH!)   
  
After that my friend and I wait for my dad to come pick us and we steal cold pizza from one band parent. And that is how my first state competition went. Something hard to forget. (Horror stories to tell the freshman next year!)  
  
  
  
I might redo this. Just to make funnier, but then again I may not. 


End file.
